Corpus of Electronic Texts Edition
The tour of the French traveller M. de La Boullaye Le Gouz in Ireland, A.D. 1644 (Author: François de La Boullaye de la Gouz)

Chapter/Section 17

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XVII.

At the time when Solinus wrote, Ireland, which was then very little known, had the reputation of being free from snakes—Illic nullus anguis, avis rara, gens inhospita et bellicosa.’’

(Polyhistor, c. xxii.)

How such a reputation arose, it is not easy to say: perhaps it might be founded in the superstitious sanctity with which the ancients always clothed the extreme boundaries of the west. In the time of Bede, the older simple story was already clothed in legendary array, and that historian asserts that it was not only free from such animals, but that no snake could live there, and that when any such reptiles had been carried over, they died invariably on approaching the shore. He asserts moreover that anything brought from Ireland is a sovereign remedy against the bite of all venomous animals, and tells us how in England they used for that purpose water, in which had been steeped the scrapings of the leaves of books, which had been brought over from the sister isle. After Bede's time, this fable became one of the most popular that prevailed during the middle ages. Giraldus tells us that not only snakes, but toads, and all other venomous reptiles were unable to live in Ireland, that more than once such animals had been carried over in boxes and had died immediately after passing the middle of the channel, that wood or leather, or any other Irish commodity steeped in water afforded a remedy not only against the bite of venomous animals, but against poison, and that a little Irish earth sprinkled even on English

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ground immediately drove away all such creatures from the neighbourhood. Giraldus gives it as the general belief of his contemporaries that Ireland was originally purged of venomous animals by the hand of St. Patrick, though he does not disguise his own scepticism on this point. However, we find this rehearsed amongst the miracles of the saint, by his biographer Jocelin. From his book (ch. clxix. clxx.) we learn that, before the time of St. Patrick, Ireland suffered under three insupportable plagues, which rendered the green island quite uninhabitable. First, it was overrun with every species of venomous reptiles; secondly, it was haunted by innumerable sorts of devils and hobgoblins; and, thirdly, the space which was not occupied by those two classes, was peopled by wizards and witches. Against the first of these plagues, St. Patrick proceeded somewhat after the manner of the fox, who drives the fleas which haunt him to the end of his tail, and then shakes them all off into the pool. So the saint gathered together all the venomous animals from every corner of the island to the top of a lofty promontory, looking down into the sea, which had previously been named Cruachan-ailge, but was afterwards called Cruach-phadruig; and from thence, at one blow, he swept them all into the deep. The hobgoblins he drove away by the sign of the cross, the wizards and witches he converted, and Ireland was every where after inhabited by christian people.

A history of the 13th century, that of the adventures of Fulke Fitz-Warine, makes us acquainted with the spot where the venomous animals, pursued so bitterly by the saint, at last took shelter. Fulke, says the story, sailed so long, seeking marvels and adventures, till he had visited the seven islands of the ocean, which are, Little Britain, Ireland, Gothland,

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Norway, Denmark, Orkany, and the great ‘Eschavye.’ In Eschavye there dwelleth none but serpents and other foul beasts. And there saw Fulk serpents with horns; and the horns were very sharp; and they have four feet, and fly like birds. One of these serpents assailed Fulk, and struck him with his horn, which transfixed his shield in the middle. Fulk wondered much at the blow, and he was well aware that when the serpent had struck him on the shield, he could not readily withdraw his horn; and Fulk stabbed him through the heart with his sword. There saw Fulk a venomous beast, which had the head of a mastiff, a thick beard like a goat, and ears like a hare; and many other beasts which St. Patrick drove out of Ireland, and imprisoned them there by the virtue of God; for the good man St. Patrick was in high credit with him. And thenceforth no venomous beast inhabits the land of Ireland, except lizards without tails—MS. Reg. 12. c. xii. in the British Museum.—W.

Rothe, titular bishop of Ossory, in his elucidations observes respecting Jocelin's Life of St Patrick, that ‘it has been delivered to us by our ancestors, that St. Patrick possessed the power of expelling serpents; and this was the universal opinion, not only of the people, but of the wisest and most discreet men of our nation, that by the virtue and power of him, our island, was freed from all fenomous creatures. Thus do the Hymns, the Antiphones, and the offices sufficiently prove, the national annals record, the Latin writers declare. In this do foreigners and natives concur; in this do the moderns, one perchance or two excepted, confirm the testimony of the ancients. In this manner do the Greek writers Theodoretus and Euthymius understand the 90th Psalm, of the actual subjection of serpents and wild beasts, which therein is

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promised unto the saints confiding in the Lord; ‘Thou shalt tread upon the lion and the adder, the young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample under thy feet!’’

‘Certainly in those histories of the saints which are composed by classic and authentic writers, many are the relations of this subjection of serpents, and of wild beasts, as exhibited in many holy men; but most eminent and rare is the example which we read in the Acts of the Apostles of the viper that fastened on the hand of St. Paul while he collected twigs for the fire. And to this Tertullian, attending and discussing the power given from Christ, of treading on serpents and scorpions, haply insinuateth to us the prerogative communicated unto Paul, that the soil of Malta should through his merits be an antidote against all poisons, and that all venomous creatures when thither brought should forthwith lose their power of doing hurt. And very similar hereunto is the prerogative bestowed on Ireland through the merits of St. Patrick; with this difference, that while in Malta, serpents, scorpions, snakes, adders, and other venomous reptiles, retain their life and their motion, and lose only their poisonous power; in Ireland they can neither hurt nor exist, inasmuch as not only the soil, but the climate, and the atmosphere unto them are instant death. The spider is found among us, yet it is entirely harmless; the frog is sometimes, but rarely met; (and its extirpation is not remote), and a lizard of many feet and many colours, but in which is not any poison!’

‘The most peculiar and eminent among these wonders,’ says Mr. Edmund L. Swift, in observations on Jocelin's Life of St. Patrick, ‘is the exemption of Ireland from serpents by the merits of St. Patrick;—while geologists, instead of ascribing it to the influence of the saint, impute this happy

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privilege to natural causes, a little poetical and legendary amplification may perhaps account for his share in its real blessing. From the earliest time the Evil Spirit has been symbolized under the form of a serpent. By a serpent were the temptation of Eve, and the fall of man accomplished. Into serpents were the rods of the Magicians changed; and as a serpent did the rod of Aaron swallow them up. Under this form did the idolators of many ages and many nations worship ‘The Mischievous Power’ propitiate his protection or deprecate his enmity. Even to this day, as I am credibly informed, a brazen serpent (like that which was lifted up in the wilderness) has been preserved in the northern parts of Ireland, and handed down in one family through a series of ages. Their tradition records it as one of the original objects of the idolatrous worship in this island. It is curiously inscribed with Hieroglyphics, now unintelligible, but which doubtless once excited the fear or the devotion of the Pagan Irish; and though it has long ceased to be worshipped, it is still the object of their Christian superstition. Should any of the neighbourhood be suspected of theft, they are required to attest their innocence on this brazen serpent, on which alone can their purgation be obtained; and so long has this relic of ancient idolatry preserved its influence, that even now would no one dare to violate the still sacred oath.’

‘May I now venture the application? St. Patrick expelled the serpents from Ireland, and drove them before him into the sea. So says the legend; which divested of its allegory, and restored to the simple truth, tells that—St. Patrick's conversion of Ireland, and his extirpation of her serpents, are one and the same act; his introduction, or rather confirmation, of Christianity, and his expulsion from the

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island of the Ophi-Sebia, or serpent-worship, which fled before his preaching. Thus may the imagination, the enthusiasm, and the devotion of our ancestors, which amplified a natural blessing into a spiritual miracle, be rationally explained. Thus, while we resign the legendary laurel from the brows of our saint, we secure to him a more permanent and honourable wreath; and thus, while we ascertain the truth of his existence, we confirm him in his well-deserved dignity—the legitimate apostle of Ireland.’

Dr. Maginn, in a facetious catalogue of the miracles of Ireland's patron saint, thus accounts for the national dislike of Irishmen ‘to make beasts of themselves’ by drinking water—

    1. You've heard, I suppose, long ago
      How the snakes in a manner most antic
      He march'd to the County Mayo
      And trundl'd them into th' Atlantic.
      Hence not to use water for drink
      The people of Ireland determine;
      With mighty good reason, I think,
      Since St. Patrick has filled it with vermin,
      And vipers and such other stuff.
—C.